19th CENTURY PAINTINGS

Oil on canvas. Tasty depiction of popular life with caricature-like figures: three full-length commoners are depicted on the street while they converse intensely with each other, exchanging confidences or... gossip! Unsigned, the painting requires restoration due to a tear at the bottom.

Oil on metal plaques. The miniatures present two portraits of Augusta of Bavaria (1788 -1851), Duchess of Leuchtenberg and Vice-Queen of Italy as consort of Viceroy Eugene de Beauharnais, stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte; although Milan was the capital of the kingdom, the couple loved to reside in the Royal Villa of Monza, where there are several spaces dedicated to the queen. The portraits are presented in ebonized wooden frames with gilded metal profiles.

Copy from David Teniers II

Oil on panel. The painting is a revised copy of the famous work by David Teniers the Younger (1610 -1690), executed between 1634 and 1640 and currently preserved at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The title of the lively scene refers to the so-called Twelfth Night, a celebration corresponding to the Epiphany, precisely twelve days after Christmas, which was the last night of celebrations, in which one could drink beyond one's limits, dedicate oneself to love, to partner and gender swapping, a sort of carnival, during which the King of Misrule (literally the king of Misrule) was elected, a ruler in reverse who imposed his laws, subverting rules and behaviors. This work, like many others by Teniers, had such success linked to the numerous commissions from royals and aristocrats during the 18th century, as to induce a large posthumous production of copyists, many of whom even signed with the artist's name. The painting presented here has several paint losses, to be remedied. It is in a late 19th century frame, adapted for size.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 19th century. The landscape depicts a wide countryside that opens onto the Alpine mountain range, preceded by the gentler pre-Alpine hill slopes; on the central path, which runs straight and perpendicular to the reliefs, a commoner is passing with his mule. The atmosphere is that of the end of the day, with pink shades illuminating the snow-capped peak. A very similar subject can be found in the production of the circle of Carlo Canella (1800 -1879), the Veronese artist known above all for his city views. The work is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. Half-length portrait of an elderly peasant couple, she with her head covered by a red scarf, he with a traditional headdress; the two faces emerge from the dark background with dignified and serene expressions. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Medallions printed on copper plates. The eight medallions are from the series of medals of "Illustrious Italian Men". These eight in particular depict the profiles of eight illustrious men from the world of art and science: Antonio Allegri known as Correggio, Andrea Appiani, Benvenuto Cellini, Andrea Palladio, Scipione Maffei, Galileo Galilei, Francesco Guicciardini and Girolamo Vida. They are mounted on a cardboard panel covered in velvet and framed in a period frame.

Portrait of Lord Wood of Inchyra

Oil on canvas. On the back there is a cartouche with attribution and title of the work. Sir John Watson Gordon established himself as a portraitist, creating portraits of many illustrious English people in his life, and also becoming a court painter. The nobleman portrayed here belongs to the House of Wood of Inchyra, a town in Perthshire in Scotland. The painting is presented in a frame.

Oil on canvas. Unidentified signature on the lower right (Terzaghi?). The scene depicts Christopher Columbus arriving at the Convento de la Rabida in Andalusia accompanied by his son Diego. The navigator was welcomed in this Franciscan convent in 1490, after receiving the news that the Catholic Monarchs had rejected his request to launch an expedition to the Indies. With the intervention of the prior and confessor of Queen Isabella, Juan Pérez, Columbus obtained that his project be heard. The painting is presented in a late 19th century frame.

Oil on canvas. The wide, very bright and spacious countryside landscape, allowing the gaze to wander towards the distant blue peaks, features a flowing stream in the center, from which sheep and oxen drink; on the path to the left, in the foreground, a couple in classical clothing is walking. The canvas requires restoration and color consolidation, due to some color losses, mainly on the left. It is presented in a late 19th century style frame.

The large scene is set by the banks of a river, which flows near a village and is crossed by a small wooden bridge. On the banks, in the foreground, a woman washes clothes, a shepherd waters his cattle and a traveller observes the figures, resting leaning on his stick. Luminous and serene, the painting has a dramatic impact. Restored and retouched, it is presented in a period frame.

Pencil on paper. Bottom right, on both, the writing "Pietro Mulazzi sketched", with the date 1883. By an unknown artist but skilled in the use of pencils, these are the portraits of a bourgeois couple, whose gray faces emerge clearly from the paper background red. They are presented in contemporary gilded frames, with several shortcomings (to be restored).

Family Lunch 1802

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. Genre scene of popular taste, it portrays a bourgeois family preparing to have lunch: the father, already seated at the table, is about to bless the meal, while his wife and son, standing, follow the prayer. Little is known about Charles Christophe Coventry, an English painter of whom we know mainly genre scenes of popular settings, such as this one. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The protagonists of the scene are a girl and a boy dressed in traditional Tyrolean clothes, a region to which the setting also refers, with its characteristic mountain chalets with flower-filled balconies; the girl, sitting knitting, joyfully receives the embrace of the boy, who takes her by surprise from behind. The pictorial style and subject matter refer to the production of some Tyrolean artists who tried their hand at popular and traditional genre scenes, including for example Hugo Kauffmann, specialized in popular interior scenes in costume. The painting, on the first canvas, shows traces of patches. It is presented in a gilded frame in style.

View of Corfu with a Small Church and a Monk

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower left. Angelos Giallinas, born in Corfu, was known for his numerous views of his native island, although his landscape production includes glimpses of Greece, other Greek islands, Italian and oriental cities. His watercolor glimpses are pervaded by a suspended, veiled atmosphere. The painting has slight scratches. Framed.

Glimpse of Corfu with Monk

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower left. Angelos Giallinas, born in Corfu, was known for his numerous views of his native island, although his landscape production includes glimpses of Greece, other Greek islands, Italian and oriental cities. His watercolor glimpses are pervaded by a suspended, veiled atmosphere. The painting has slight scratches. Framed.

View of Corfù

Watercolour on paper. Signed lower left. Angelos Giallinas, born in Corfu, was known for his numerous views of his native island, although his landscape production includes glimpses of Greece, other Greek islands, Italian and oriental cities. His watercolor glimpses are pervaded by a suspended, veiled atmosphere. This same view of the island was presented, in a smaller example, at a Sotheby's auction in London in 2002. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil on canvas. French school of the late 18th - early 19th century. Portrait of a gentleman in elegant bourgeois dress. The canvas has slight tears and requires cleaning. It is presented in a gilded 19th century frame.

Oil on canvas. The scene shows the results of a battle, with survivors providing first aid to the wounded, carrying the bodies of their fallen comrades, and a friar blessing the dying. Officers on horseback count the victims and honor them. The scene is set in an open territory on the banks of a river, with rugged mountain slopes in the background. The rosy atmosphere of a sunset underlines the end of the day, of the battle, of the life lost in battle. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Study for Vegetation

Pencil on paper. Signed lower right. Michetti, originally from Abruzzo, studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, where he developed his realistic and naturalistic style. But rural Abruzzo, with its still uncontaminated nature, was always his main source of inspiration. Here is a small study of country vegetation. Framed.

Female Portrait

Oil on canvas. Signed on the right, halfway up the canvas. It is the portrait of a woman in mourning, a young widow, as can be deduced not only from her black dress, but rather from her headdress and especially from the cameo with a male portrait, which she wears hanging from her neck. Achille Zo was a French artist (from Bayonne, a town in the Pyrenees that was culturally influenced by the Basque Country), who despite having repeatedly stayed in Paris and Bordeaux, where he trained artistically, then made several trips to Spain, both to Madrid (in 1856) and to Andalusia (1860), producing for several years works with historical subjects or Spanish genre scenes. At the end of the 1860s, he turned instead to Orientalism. There are also several portraits in his production. The painting proposed here, on the first canvas, is presented in a beautiful contemporary frame from the second half of the 19th century.

Oil on canvas, applied to panel. French School. Signed F. Barthélemy and dated 1876 lower left. The scene is in oriental taste and setting, and suggests the domestic and intellectual education of a young girl (the reference, albeit secular, to the Education of the Virgin is evident!): a young girl, standing at the center of the scene, while intent on embroidery, listens to the teaching of her mother, who is holding some written sheets in her hands; the elderly woman is dressed in oriental dress and reclining on a triclinium, while, behind her, a servant moves the curtain, revealing the background of an imposing classical temple. The scene is characterized by carefully crafted and richly detailed settings, such as the bunch of flowers on the embroidery table, the fabric covering the triclinium on which the mother is reclining; the intimate and domestic atmosphere is underlined by the earthy colours of the palace walls, on which the bright colours of the figures stand out, well lit by the light bursting from outside. The painting is presented in a period frame.